ABSTRACT In response to growing global challenges, this study explores how social entrepreneurship within the Edible City movement contributes to building resilient, sustainable, and equitable urban food systems. Drawing on semistructured interviews with over 70 stakeholders across five cities—Berlin, Andernach, Oslo, Rotterdam, and Havana—we investigate the motivations, business models, challenges, and scaling strategies of diverse urban food initiatives. We define the scaling strategies as follows: improving existing activities for existing target groups (scaling deep); reaching more people with the same activity (scaling up); replicating activities in new geographic areas (scaling wide); starting activities in new domains (scaling across); and influencing political agendas, mindsets and cultural norms (scaling soft). Each of these strategies connects to specific adaptations in business models: enhancing operational efficiency, expanding capacity, tailoring to local contexts, developing diversified revenue streams, or promoting value‐based change. Our findings reveal both strong commitments to social and ecological goals and also persistent challenges, such as economic fragility, self‐exploitation, and overreliance on precarious funding. Applying Business Model Theory, we identify hybrid models that balance revenue generation with social and environmental impact, and call for policy support and organizational innovation—such as sustainable work structures and mission‐aligned income strategies—to enable long‐term viability and resilience in the urban food sector.
Säumel et al. (Fri,) studied this question.
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